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Atticus: John Burns

Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, the president of Dublin City University, wrote to Charles Haughey in 2004 asking if the former taoiseach would donate his papers; the letter has now been released under Freedom of Information rules.

"Dear Dr Haughey," the president began, a salutation presumably based on the honorary degree DCU itself gave Haughey. "I am of the emphatic view that the development and growth of DCU was due to your support and leadership. Your willingness to support university status for us, and to direct your government accordingly, was the decisive moment in our history. I consider you to be one of the major benefactors of DCU."

As if that tongue bath wasn't enough, von Prondzynski also told Haughey that his government of 1987-89 "paved the way for Ireland's later phenomenal economic growth [and] it seems appropriate to link the development of DCU with your own visionary politics". Haughey handed